Now that everyone has stuffed themselves silly, the only thing left to do this holiday weekend is shop! To facilitate your holiday shopping, I have built an Amazon store filled with kitchen tools, cookbooks, ingredients, and a few surprises. Click here to shop Croque-Camille, or you can always go to the “Shop” tab at the top of this page.

Amazon has also provided me with a special link to their Black Friday specials, just for today, so you can do your holiday shopping from the comfort of your own desk, couch, or even bed (aren’t laptops great?).

Any proceeds will be used for adventurous market purchases, photography and styling improvements, and researching all the Parisian eateries I can! (Anything to improve your reading experience.)

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I may have mentioned that we brought back some beer from Lille. It turns out Nick got a photo of the lineup, so now I can share it with you.

We haven’t come close to getting through them yet, seeing as most of these are bières de garde, a potent (around 8%, usually) style similar to Belgian brews. It’s sipping beer. So far, we found the La Choulette Blonde to be unremarkable, and while their Ambrée was pretty good, we neglected to make any tasting notes, which greatly decreases the chance of it getting its own post (that is, until I can get my hands on some more). But when I tasted this one:

I immediately smiled and exclaimed, “This tastes like grapefruit! I bet it would make a great brunch beer!” Nick found it to be a bit on the sweet side, which I argued is one of the things that would make it so good for morning consumption (when events warrant). I didn’t find the sweetness to be distracting, balanced as it was with the distinct tang of grapefruit.

The literature on the back of the bottle explains that Hellemus Blonde des Flandres is a natural, traditionally produced bière de garde. It is unfiltered and unpasteurized, and they claim that the carefully chosen malts and hops assure a unique, authentic flavor. I’ll say.

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I found a new restaurant! Or, to be more accurate, Nick found it. Not far from Pierre Hermé’s boutique in the quiet 15th arrondissement, Le Marcab opened for business a little over a week ago. Upon viewing the menu posted outside, and the chic décor inside, Nick thought it might be worth checking out.

So when we found ourselves in the neighborhood on a recent weeknight, we wanted to see if this place would live up to its potential.

Stylishly decorated in tones of gray and gold, the dining room feels opulent yet welcoming. The banquette, which takes up one entire wall of the restaurant, whimsically evokes an oversized, baroque couch. Since Le Marcab had only opened a few days before, we were the only people there, but we didn’t let that daunt us. The service was as polite and timely as any of my better dining experiences in Paris, and the restaurant, on the whole, shows the kind of attention to detail you would see in any top-tier establishment.

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The French have their own Thursday-in-late-November celebration: La Fête du Beaujolais Nouveau. Come the third Thursday in November, anywhere that sells wine will be loudly proclaiming the arrival of the new Beaujolais.

Due, I think, to overproduction on the part of French winemakers, the “holiday” was created to boost Beaujolais sales right after the harvest. When they say “Nouveau,” they aren’t kidding. The grapes were harvested maybe two months ago, and this is the first actual wine to be produced in any given year.

Very light and fruity, this wine is meant to be drunk NOW. There is no tannin to speak of, and very little structure, but the stuff goes down like fruit juice. Served slightly chilled, it is dangerously drinkable (it is not unheard of for one person to casually polish off a whole bottle on a weeknight… not that I know anything about that personally, mind you). Because of its gentle acidity, it is a rather food-friendly wine, and magazines all over the US for the last couple of years have been touting it as a great wine for Thanksgiving. While I tend to prefer a wine as special as the meal I just spent three days preparing, I can see where they’re coming from.

This year’s batch (based on the one I’ve tried so far) is fairly typical – fruity and easy-drinking. If you see it, grab a bottle and drink it soon. This is not cellar wine, so don’t spend more than 10 bucks.

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Hopie, a fellow American-in-Paris-food-blogger, is hosting an event in an effort to support her mom, who is training for a 109-mile bike ride. But this isn’t any ordinary bike ride, it’s also a fundraiser for research on blood cancers. So Hopie has asked the food blogging community to help out by offering up their best energy food recipes.

I immediately thought of granola, high in energy and fiber, and low in fat (at least the way I make it). I could have gone the lazy route and reposted this old recipe, but that didn’t really seem to be in the spirit of the event (the laziness, I mean, not the recipe). Plus, I thought a seasonally appropriate update was in order. Be warned, however, once you get hooked on homemade granola, you may never go back to the pre-packaged stuff! Without further ado, here is my dream recipe for Fall granola – most of the ingredients are horrendously expensive here in France, so eat it up, Americans!

Cranberry-Pecan Granola

A great snack or breakfast for fall, you could even use this to top an apple or pear crisp!

1. Preheat oven to 175 C/ 350 F.
2. Combine the oats, pecans, pepitas, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Drizzle the apple juice concentrate over the oat mixture and toss gently to evenly moisten the oats.
3. Spread the granola mixture on a sheet pan and place in the oven. Bake, stirring every 10 minutes or so until the oats are uniformly toasted to a nice terra cotta shade. This should take 45 minutes to an hour, depending on your oven.
4. During the last 5-10 minutes of toasting, heat up the maple syrup in the microwave. 20-30 seconds will suffice; you just want it to be fluid and easily pourable.
5. Carefully transfer the hot granola to a large bowl and toss with the dried cranberries. Drizzle the warm syrup over the granola and toss gently to coat.
6. Spread the granola back out on the sheet pan to cool. Once cooled, it will keep in an airtight container up to 6 weeks.

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Whenever I travel somewhere new, the first question I ask before going is, “What are the local food specialties?” I guess that makes me some kind of culinary tourist. In preparing for our recent trip to Lille, I searched three or four different libraries for guidebooks to Lille or at least the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. No dice. So apart from a few recommendations from a friend, Nick and I were pretty much flying blind. Which turned out to be cool. We found a great restaurant in the paper, we had Google Maps running constantly on our phones (what an age we live in!), and we chatted with the very friendly locals. In one café, the owner found out that I was a pâtissier, and said that I should really pay a visit to Meert. He explained that it was one of the oldest pâtisseries in France, and that they were the official pastry suppliers for the royal family of Belgium.

Situated on a very posh street (the smallest bill dispensed by the nearby ATM was a 50!) just off the Place du Général de Gaulle (which everyone insists on calling the Grand Place, just to confuse you), Meert’s gorgeous storefront invites you in to ogle the tempting treats. The shop is split into three parts: on the left is the pastry boutique, the right side houses the chocolate shop, and a salon de thé sits cozily tucked away in the back.

We arrived late in the afternoon on a Sunday, and the pastry selection was dwindling. We chose a beautiful tarte au chocolat, and then went next door to pick out some chocolates. (Since I’ve started learning the art of chocolaterie, I have become much more interested in the chocolate selections at the pâtisseries I visit.)

That piece of crisp nougatine on top of the chocolate tart was the reason I had to try it. Crushed hazelnuts and cacao nibs were bound by a thin layer of crunchy caramel. But that may have been the best part. The chocolate tart shell was tasty, but too thick. It left very little room for the smooth dark chocolate ganache filling, which was a shame. More filling and less crust would have let the chocolate flavor shine. Still, I appreciate that Meert uses chocolate disks to display their logo, as opposed to cardboardtags.

I failed to get any photos of the chocolates, but let me assure you that they were beautiful. The raspberry ganache had bits of fresh raspberry mixed in, which was a nice touch. My favorite was probably the semi-liquid passionfruit gelée enrobed in dark chocolate, but I was impressed by how incredibly smooth their ganaches and pralinés were.

We retuned to the same café later that evening for an apéritif, and the owner was pleased to see we had a Meert bag in tow. I thanked him for the suggestion and then Nick and I settled in with pints of Affligem Noël – an absolutely delicious winter beer scented with cinnamon and other spices. With all the beer and chocolate (not to mention the mussels and gaufres) Lille feels a lot more like Belgium than France. Which is great, because after only an hour on the train from Paris, it really felt like we’d gone somewhere. And that’s the whole point of a weekend getaway, is it not?

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Those of you who have been paying attention the last couple of weeks have probably noticed a proliferation of meals involving Tillamook sharp cheddar cheese. Normally, I would use La Fête du Fromage as an excuse to try something funky and new (although who needs an excuse, really?), but this time I’m going to wax rhapsodic about my favorite cheddar cheese.

Started in 1909 as a dairy farmers’ cooperative to ensure the continuing high quality of cheese produced in the region, the Tillamook County (Oregon) Creamery Association now includes over 100 dairy farmers and produces a gamut of dairy products from cheese to ice cream. Pretty much everything you could want to know about them can be found on their website. (And no, I am not a member of the fan club.)

The cheese itself, in case you are unfamiliar, has a firm, bordering on crumbly texture. It melts like a dream, and has a distinct tang to its robust, smooth cheddar flavor. It’s great for snacking as well as cooking. I’ve already made chili and macaroni and cheese with it, but this time I wanted a sandwich.

Specifically, a tuna melt. Using my standard tuna salad recipe (red onions, celery, and mayonnaise – no pickles) and some tasty bread from Du Pain et des Idées, I built a solid base for the thick slices of Tillamook. Into the pan the sandwiches went, with a thin smear of butter on the outsides of the bread.

And out they came, gooey and delicious as ever. Nick took about a million pictures of the beautiful cheese oozing out the side of the crispy, toasty sandwiches. And then we sat down to eat them while watching the Daily Show. It was a good night.

Don’t forget to stop by Chez Louloufor the Fête du Fromage roundup on the 15th!